In 1916, the nation's first birth-control clinic was opened in New York by Margaret Sanger and two other women.

In 1946, at Nuremberg, Germany, 10 high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging for World War II war crimes. Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo and chief of the German air force, was to have been among them but he committed suicide in his cell the night before.

In 1964, China detonated its first atomic bomb.

In 1972, a light plane carrying House Democratic leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana and three other men was reported missing in Alaska. The plane was never found.

In 1978, Karol Jozef Wojtyla was elected pope and took the name John Paul II.

In 1984, black Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa won the Nobel Peace Prize for his struggle against apartheid.

In 1991, George Hennard killed 22 people and then took his own life after driving his pickup truck through the front window of Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.

In 2003, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

In 2004, the World Health Organization said smoke from home stoves and fires in developing countries had become a major cause of death and disease.

In 2010, France was rocked by another day of massive protests against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age. Estimates of the number of demonstrators in Paris and 200 other cities neared 3 million.

In 2011, British race car driver Don Wheldon, 33-year-old two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, died after a 15-car pileup at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block early voting in Ohio. The rejection, a victory for Democrats, meant all Ohio voters, not just the military, would be allowed to vote early on the weekend and Monday before Election Day.

A thought for the day: Irish author and dramatist Oscar Wilde's dying words were said to have been, "This wallpaper is killing me; one of us has got to go."